Duty frees stock up on vodka ahead of big match
More than 50,000 Manchester United and Chelsea fans from all over the world — including many from Ireland — will this week lay siege to Moscow’s airports for the hotly anticipated game.
Aer Rianta International (ARI), the Irish company which runs the duty free shops in all three of the Russian capital’s airports, has been preparing for the busiest day in its history.
“Champions League finals are very rarely held outside of the EU and that means supporters can’t benefit from duty free but they can this year and it’s going to be incredibly busy,” said John Woodhouse of ARI.
“Obviously, after the game one set of fans is going to be very happy and the other set will be despondent but we expect everyone to shop.”
The Shannon-based firm is expecting an extra 30,000 customers at its stores over the three-day period after the match — which translates into one sales transaction every three seconds.
Bracing itself for the onslaught, ARI has bought in 110,000 bottles of vodka, 17.5 million cigarettes and, for fans of the winning team —– 10,000 bottles of champagne.
They have also stockpiled 130,000 Toblerones, 4,500 bottles of VSOP Cognac, 33,000 boxes of Lir Chocolate Truffles, 9,500 boxes of Russian Souvenir Chocolates and 4,800 Lego sets for souvenir hunters.
Staff have been put on overtime to cope with what bosses believe will also be the most lucrative few days they have ever experienced.
Immediately after the game at the Luzhniki Stadium, the number of extra transactions at the duty-free shops is expected to rise to one every second as many fans have opted to fly home the same evening.
ARI opened its first Moscow duty free outlet in what was then still the communist Soviet Union 20 years ago.
It has stores in 24 airports worldwide including New York’s JFK airport, Muscat in Oman, Halifax in Canada, Cairo in Egypt, Pristina in Kosovo, Cyprus and Barbados.
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